


A Little Bit Perfect

by ThatOddNerd



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Angst, Dysfunctional Family, Family, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-28
Updated: 2014-11-28
Packaged: 2018-02-27 07:25:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2684321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatOddNerd/pseuds/ThatOddNerd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sarah's life had never been easy. She'd always been a runner, a fighter, but this was ridiculous.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Little Bit Perfect

* * *

 

"Oh shit! Fall back! RUN! Run!" Sarah called out to the people around her, and soon enough, she and the others were sprinting down the mountainside towards the two army trucks they had stolen for this very purpose. Sarah had a tight grip on her shotgun, and a sharp eye on her goal. The trucks. They needed to get to the trucks. She took a brief moment to look around her and make sure the others were still coming. She saw Delphine, Alison, Donnie, Felix... where were Helena and Cal? Sarah stopped abruptly, nearly colliding with Delphine as the woman shouted 'Avancer! Merde!' as she passed. 

Where had Cal and Helena gone? They were right behind her, where...

Suddenly she saw them, five hundred feet up the mountain, Helena supporting Cal with one of his arms slung around her shoulders, them barrelling down as fast as they could. Cal must have fallen and Helena must have stopped to help. They'd grown such an odd, tight relationship since Cal had saved her from the LEDA scientists, that sometimes Sarah wondered if the connection was just something felt throughout the clones. Alison and Cosima were pretty close to him as well. She felt a tug at her arm and pretty soon was being dragged forward towards the trucks by Alison, spewing obscenities at her for stopping. 

"But Cal, he fell and Helena stopped for him, we can't..." 

"They'll make it! Get into one of the trucks and go! I'll stay in the other one and wait for them!" Alison called back, shoving her towards the first truck. 

"But..." It was her twin and the man she loved, how could she just leave them there?

"Do you trust me?" Alison asked. It was a loaded question that all of the clones had asked each other more than once since this whole mess began. Sometimes the answers varied, but other times...

"Yes." Sarah replied with a finality that portrayed it's conviction.

"Then go." Alison slammed the door and then turned towards the slope, cocking her shot gun and letting off some, Sarah guessed, strategically placed blasts towards the trees. She heard the now familiar sound of a barrage of bullets rain down towards the base of the mountain, and started screaming, struggling with the seat belt Delphine had strapped her in. 

"Stop the car!" Sarah shouted, still struggling. Delphine grabbed the shotgun she'd had from her and put it in the back with her, Felix, and the other weapons, and Donnie just kept driving. Why did he keep driving? "I said stop the damn car mate! STOP!" Sarah hit Donnie hard in the shoulder and the truck swerved dangerously towards the edge of the road. 

"Sarah! We cannot stop the fucking car with all those people after us! Sit the fuck down!" Felix shouted from the back, Sarah turned and glared at him, causing him to close his mouth, not bothering to snap at her. She turned back to Donnie and continued to glare.

"Your fucking WIFE is back there Donnie! You heard those bullets! How could you just keep driving? What if she's injured, what if she's de..."

"I know what could have fucking happened Sarah, you don't need to tell me." Donnie snapped, not taking his eyes off the road. Sarah sat back, stunned. Since they had all gone on the run two years ago, Donnie had changed quite a bit. It wasn't that Sarah had never heard him swear before, but they were few and far between, and never had she heard such malice in his voice directed at her or the others. "Alison and I, when we agreed to run with you guys, made another agreement of our own. If we were in a situation like this and it looked like the one of us wasn't going to make it out but the other would, to run. Don't look back. We cannot leave our children as orphans. That isn't fair to them. So I am doing the right thing, I am running because my son and daughter need me. Don't you think I want to go back Sarah? I want to, badly. But that wasn't what we had agreed on, and it isn't an agreement I am prepared to go back on. I am going to see my kids one day and that's that." Sarah was seething but she sat back, unable to think of a rebuttal. Donnie was right. While they hadn't said anything out loud, Sarah and Cal had agreed on something pretty similar. If Sarah died, Cal would take Kira and run. If Cal died, Sarah would take Kira and run. They had to do what was best for their child, and Sarah couldn't help but feel the connection with Donnie at that moment, something she never thought she would believe. 

They arrived at the hide out two hours later, still no sign of Alison, Cal, or Helena. Sarah had kept her eye out for the distinct sight of headlights behind them, but the only ones she saw were the cars behind them when they went through the tiny town they had to go through to get to where they'd set up homebase. When they stepped through the doors to the underground compound, found by freak chance by Cosima while digging up something else online, Sarah didn't feel relief like she usually did. She felt guilt. 

"Well that went well." she heard Felix comment behind her as they stripped themselves of the outer black wear they wore as camouflage for night missions.

"Speak for yourself." Sarah said quietly. "You don't have to tell Kira that her dad and two of her aunts are missing." Not waiting for his response, Sarah headed for the living room where she heard the sounds of Kira and Cosima laughing. She arrived to see Delphine sitting on the couch next to a now healthy looking Cosima, both of them smiling at Kira, who was apparently acting out a very dramatic scene filled with swoops and lunges.

"Hey Monkey." Sarah greeted. Delphine's smile faltered, something Cosima noticed, and suddenly, her smile was gone, and she was looking at Sarah. Kira stopped when she saw her aunts' faces, and turned to her mother.

"Hi Mum." she replied in turn. When she didn't see the familiar presence of her father and two other aunts, her expression grew dark. "What's wrong? What happened?"

"I...we were running from the facility. They had these...gas cannisters that can do awful things to you so I called for everyone to run, and near the bottom of the mountain I turned and saw your Auntie Helena helping your dad down the mountain. He'd fallen and she had stopped to help. The guards were closing in on us and your Auntie Alison told us to run, and she stayed back with the truck and waited for the others, and was covering them and...as we were driving away we heard what sounded like machine guns and..." Sarah sat down heavily on the chair behind her and took her daughter's hands in hers. "I'm sorry Monkey, they didn't make it." Sarah waited for the possibility of Kira crying. It wasn't something she did often, she'd always been pretty good at holding her emotions in, but in the case of serious issues, Kira had cried. Sarah expected the announcement that her father and two of her aunts (biologically and sort of biologically) would elicit that response but there was nothing. Kira just kept staring at her, face puzzled and concerned.

"No, they're fine." Kira's words were said with such conviction it startled Sarah quite a bit. She wondered if Kira had gone into shock and then denial over the news, but something deep down, in her gut, told her otherwise.

"What makes you...why do you think that Kira?" Cosima asked the question the three adults in the room were all thinking. Cosima was one of Kira's strongest supporters in the almost supernatural ability she had to predict and sense things, something that shocked everyone, considering how much Cosima relied on cold hard facts to believe in something.

"I can just tell." Kira talked as she went to sit back down on the couch with Cosima and Delphine. She picked up the book she had been reading earlier and went back to it. "I can feel it. They're alright. Wounded , but alright. Auntie Helena might take the sniper rifle and go back to the facility though. I would hide that if I were you. Dad is tired, hurt, and hungry. Alison is mad."

"Mad?" Delphine inquired.

"A bullet ripped through her arm and now her favorite mission jacket is ruined." Kira said it like it was the most obvious thing on the planet, even rolling her eyes in the process.

"So why didn't I see the headlights of the truck when we were driving?" Sarah couldn't help the small bit of hope that was creeping up inside her. She'd learned her lesson in that but every once in awhile she couldn't help but feel it again.

"They left almost ten minutes after you. And they took a different route, so the ones remaining wouldn't find out where this place was." Again with the conviction in her words.

"Ma chère, they might not have...that is, that might not be the case."  Delphine wanted so much to believe the little girl was right. She'd grown close to everyone and hated the thought of losing three people she considered as close as family. But she had always been a bit of a skeptic, and old habits die hard, as they say. 

"I know that mon ami, but it is not so. Tout va bien." Delphine smiled at her. She'd been teaching Kira French on and off for the past couple of years, and she had gotten very good. Something about her words this time allowed a bit more hope to venture inside her, and Delphine was now more certain she would see her friends again. "Relax mum, they're fine."

Sarah hoped she was right.

* * *

 

Dawn had come and it had been nearly six hours since they left the facility on the mountain, and Sarah's hope of seeing Cal, Helena, and Alison again were slowly fading. As much as she wanted to believe her still convinced daughter that all was indeed well, they should have gotten back by now. 

She was winding herself up, having gotten no sleep and working on several cups of coffee, to go back out and look for them, when she stopped pacing on the kitchen floor. She heard it. The distinct, very distinct, sound of the inner door latch being opened, and footstep down the staircase. She rushed from the kitchen to the main entrance and stood frozen at the sight before her. There was Alison in a makeshift sling, Cal in a makeshift cast and using what appeared to be two posts from a fence as crutches, and Helena limping a bit and looking as murderous as ever. Sarah fought the urge to rush at them, instead opting for leaning against the wall and glaring at them. 

"Where the fuck have you been and what the fuck happened?" She tried to sound angry, and she was, she was pissed. But her voice was shaky and she was losing the battle of not showing how relieved she was to see them. Cal looked a bit sheepish, Alison wouldn't look her in the eye, and Helena just looked like she wanted to murder someone. As usual. 

"Those persons, they shot at Ca' and he went to zeh ground. I stopped for him." Helena explained, believing that was what her twin meant.

"Yeah, I know as much. I saw you two waddling down the mountainside. I mean what happened after we left?" They were right in front of her now, and Alison nodded at Cal, then his leg, Sarah nodded, and Alison helped Cal walk to the room they were using for medical purposes to clean him up and redress his wounds.

"Zey fired at us." Helena started again. "As me and Ca' got to zeh car, many bullets came at us. Many. Ali ducked, and Ca', he got us to zeh ground. Those persons were coming down zeh mountain quick. Ali got back up, cursing because she was hit in zeh arm. But she grabbed another gun from zeh back of zeh truck and started firing again. I got Ca' into zeh truck and I grabbed the bazooka in the back..."

"You did what?" Sarah asked, catching the word 'bazooka' and looking surprised.

"I took zeh bazooka from zeh car and I fired it at zeh persons after us. Big boom. Big. Ali screamed to get in zeh truck and I did and we drove." 

"You're injured."

"Yes. This is correct."

"You're injured and you fired a bazooka to keep the guards from getting to you guys so you, Cal, and Alison could escape."

"Yes, seestra, why do you keep repeating words?" Helena looked at her twin, genuinely confused, and Sarah shook her head. 

"Alright. Sorry. Continue Meathead." 

"Do not call me zat." Helena replied out of instinct. Sarah grinned. "Well, Ca' and Ali agreed we shouldn't take zeh same route as you so as to throw off the bad persons, so we took a left instead of going on, at that fork in zeh road by zeh boulder." Sarah nodded. "We knew we'd reach zis place eventually. Ca', he had looked at maps before. We just didn't realize it would take zat long to get back. There were many obsta...problems. Some including sheep."

"Sheep?" 

"Baaaaaa." Helena bleated, and grinned at her twin. Sarah rolled her eyes and then settled them back on her twin. Helena had stopped dying her hair ages ago, and the brunette color she was naturally given had come back. The curls were all her though. It was like looking at herself after Kira took a perm set to her hair."Also, Ca' had to stop me from blowing up zeh bad place."

"I'm sorry, what?" Sarah could not believe, (But she could.) the story she was hearing. It was getting weirder and weirder. 

"Ten miles away I wanted to go back and blow eet up. Zeh are bad people." So matter of fact. She wondered if the smartass gene in Kira was from her or Cal. Or both. Probably both.

"Jesus Christ Helena, what were you thinking? What if they got some good shots in and killed all of you yeah?"

"Zat is what Ali said. Along wiz 'We escaped. If you do zat you walk back yourself, cuz I ain't turning around. But don't, because I do not want to explain to Sarah why her twin seestra is dead.' " 

"Good ol' Alison." Sarah muttered. "Come on Meathead. Let's get you cleaned up and fed. I believe Delphine is up now. I'll ask her to start breakfast and make a lot of coffee."

"Do not call me zat. Do we have zeh donuts?" Sarah laughed as she helped her twin down the hall. 

"Yeah. Art bought some during his last supply round. Just for you." 

"I like Art." Helena commented, and Sarah could hear the fatigue in her voice. It'd been a long 24 hours for everyone. 

"He's warmin' up to you too I believe." Sarah replied as they entered the room.

"Yes he is, despite his weariness." Art commented from where he was by the gurney they had in the center of the room, still taking the bullet out of Cal's leg.

"Hello Art." Helena greeted, smiling.

"Hello Maniac." 

"Hello Pig Sleeper." She couldn't help getting in the last word. Art just rolled his eyes, but Helena noted, with triumph, the smile on his face. "Yes, he likes me." 

Later on in the day, Sarah found Cal laying down on one of the couches in the living room, and carefully situated herself on the same couch, raising his head and sliding in under it, before putting it back on her lap. She absentmindedly played with his hair while he read from some magazine about computers.

"Were you able to find anything out from that one guy you cornered?" Sarah asked after ten minutes of amiable silence. 

"Yeah." Cal replied, still reading. "She's apparently in Wales. Adopted by a nice family from Cardiff. A couple with one other daughter. Mom's got police and military training apparently, and the dad has some sort of weapons training. They're in hiding as well, which makes it even better. Apparently it's a long story. Anyway, they were contacted and agreed, miracle of miracles, to take her in." 

"So she's safe." 

"Yes, she is. Very safe." Cal, she noticed, was starting to nod off from the soothing motions of her playing with his hair, and Sarah would be lying if she said that wasn't one of the reasons she came over. He needed to sleep. 

"Do we know her name?"

"Apparently the new family renamed her Tosh." Cal's voice was getting deeper and slower, and his loud, giant yawn was a marker for his descent into dreamland. 

"I like it." 

"So do I." 

"Do we tell her?"

"Do you think we should? She might try to find her if she knows where she might be." Cal reminded, and Sarah pursed her lips.

"I dunno, I don't think so. She's changed a lot lately. I think she'd be happy knowing her daughter was safe. She knows how dangerous this all is. We didn't exactly have a choice with Kira, or Gemma, or Oscar. They know about them. They didn't really know a whole lot about her. They are under the impression she was delivered stillborn."

"Thanks to Siobhan." 

"Yeah, thanks to her." Sarah leaned back against the couch and sighed. It seemed like everything was just getting more and more complicated the deeper they got, not simpler. She'd learned by now not to expect simple with any aspect of this, but that didn't stop her from feeling annoyed when another set of questions arose from a new discovery. 

"Do you ever think we'll get another shot at a normal life?" Sarah asked, although she was pretty sure Cal was asleep now. Sure enough, she looked down at him after she heard the magazine drop to the floor, and he was out. "I hope we do." Sarah continued. "I hope we can one day get a cottage in the woods, just you, me, and Kira. We'll go fishing, even though I am shit at it, and Kira will go to school. We'll have Helena and them over all the time, and everything will be lovely." Even as she said it, Sarah knew her words were faulty. There was no guarantee of anything these days, not even life itself. But a woman could dream couldn't she? "It's just ... I'd like a little less of the pew pew pew, and a little more oh phew you know? I'd rather worry about Kira's first boyfriend or girlfriend, or about the price of gas or if we're out of milk, rather than how much ammo we need when we go out and if we'll even come back alive you know?" Cal's breathing had evened out and Sarah adjusted herself carefully to a more comfortable position, gearing up to possibly fall asleep as well. " I love you. Well, all of you, but especially you. And Kira. And Helena. God, if you told me years back I'd be saying I loved Helena and meant it, I would have called you a dumb arse but here I am." She carefully leaned down and brushed a kiss on his forehead before settling back down against the pillows. As she nodded off to sleep, she could hear what sounded like a water fight ('No! Not zeh water sprayer Kira! Mercy!' 'Don't be chicken Auntie Helena!' A shriek, and then laughing from many people.), and Sarah couldn't help but smile. She had everything she needed right there, and needed nothing else. It was, at that moment, at least for a little bit, perfect. 

The End.

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
